Moving on from pregnant soldiers to more important issues like rape

Last week MomHouston posted a story about soldiers serving in Iraq who could face a court martial and possible jail time if they got pregnant according to a new policy. Over the weekend Maj. Gen Anthony Cucolo, who made the order, backed down, saying he would not seek to jail someone over a pregnancy. The policy, he told reporters, was to bring attention to the short-staffing that results when soldiers must be sent home because they are pregnant.

Attention was definitely brought to this issue of pregnancy which the Wall Street Journal reports has affected four of Cucolo’s 22,000 soldiers.

In a MomHouston readers’ poll, nearly half of respondents thought putting a woman in jail for getting pregnant was wrong, while just 30 percent of readers agreed with the general’s policy.

Perhaps not shocking is that 20 percent of you responded that women shouldn’t be serving in wars anyway. The point being, I guess, that women shouldn’t risk their lives protecting our freedom. After all, four of them might get pregnant.

I wonder what kind of draconian policy could be drafted if attention needed to be brought to the nearly 3,000 cases last year of reported sexual abuse involving men and women in the military. According to the New York Times, ten percent of these cases involve male victims. From the story:

A Pentagon-appointed task force, in a report released this month, pointedly criticized the military’s efforts to prevent sexual abuse, citing the “unique stresses” of deployments in places like Camp Taji. “Some military personnel indicated that predators may believe they will not be held accountable for their misconduct during deployment because commanders’ focus on the mission overshadows other concerns,” the report said.

That, among other reasons, is why sexual assault and harassment go unreported far more often than not. “You’re in the middle of a war zone,” Captain White said, reflecting a fear many military women describe of being seen, somehow, as harming the mission.

How prepared is a soldier, male or female, for battle after facing something traumatic like sexual assault? There’s an issue worth some attention.

15 Responses

Well said. I fully support the military, but I have a HUGE issue with the fact that so many women serving have been sexually assaulted. It. Must. Stop. And, the answer is NOT to kick women out the military. It’s to advocate for these women, not ruin their careers, teach the men doing this to be REAL men, and above all PROSECUTE.

The rape issue definitely needs to be addressed for both sexes–most male on male rape is hugely under reported, according to every study ever done. Additionally, it seems premature to punish people for pregnancy until a truly reliable and easily accessible/affordable method of birth control is available to all. The Pill doesn’t cut it for many women and we all know how reliable the other forms aren’t… It shouldn’t be a crime to engage in consenting adult behavior when off duty, even in the military. Penalizing people for pregnancy criminalizes sexuality.

@BadPixie: When a person takes the Oath of Enlistment or is a Commisioned officer, they automaticaly start living with an entirely new set of rules. The military is governed by the UCMJ (the Uniform Code of Military Justive) and the rules that apply to civilians DO NOT apply to service members. When a male/female is deployed, there is no “off duty”. When in a war zone it is detrimental to good order and discipline to have squad mates (co-workers) engaging in sexual behaivior. Not to say that it doesn’t happen, it does but it’s bad for business. Especially when that business is keeping you and your buddy alive. Yes, sexuality is criminalized, when you step off that plane into theater. General order number 1 states that porn, alchohol, sexual contact and a host of other activities are banned while deployed. That’s just one of the many sacrifices you make when you put on the uniform.

I don’t know the source of your numbers, but pregnancy in the military is a huge problem, not just four isolated cases. When you couple that with a war in which troops are stretched thin then every pregnancy means one less fighting person. Female soldiers on deployment rarely take along their husbands, meaning that they are becoming pregnant while deployed. Think about it for a minute before condemning this general who only wants to finish his mission while protecting his troops. The battle field is no place for a fetus. The fact that this is not obvious to everyone shows the frightening level of ignorance in this country.

I don’t think women should be sent to jail for getting pregnant, whether they are in the military or not. That’s just crazy. I also agree that the sexual abuse problem needs to be addressed. Some people will always sexually abuse, but it can be prevented if people are educated about it.

You folks just don’t get it. The military is governed by the UCMJ, not the ACLU or the Constitution. G.I. stands for Government Issue, just like a pair of olive drab colored socks or your bunk. You cannot apply ANYTHING civilian to the military, period. Having sex with a comrade in uniform is strictly forbidden & is punishable under the regulations they have SWORN to abide by. And as to women serving in combat situations alongside of men. Totally absurd. The military does not issue a female a lighter pack or weapon for her to strap on her back. A 50lb pack on the back of a 180lb man is quite different from that of a 110lb petite Paris Hilton look-a-like. PC has lost sight of reality when it comes to females in these situations. A woman’s place is no longer in the home as in the past, but it certainly is not on the front lines in today’s military either.

Dear Yo, Actually, it was a blogger who published in the WSJ who is the “source” of these misleading statistics. The WSJ itself had nothing to do with the accuracy of the content. If you carefully read the blog you will see that 4 female soldiers received letters of reprimand for being pregnant. It does NOT say that ONLY four female soldiers were pregnant. I am aware of some US Navy ships where up to 40% of female sailors become pregnant while on deployment. As I stated earlier, the battlefield is no place for a fetus. Why does anyone have a problem with that statement?

If NOT being pregnant is a requirement of your job, and you fail to prevent yourself from becoming pregnant, then you should suffer some consequences. The way the military handles that is through court martials, but I would say that a dishonorable discharge would be better than jail time. If they can find the father through DNA (and I believe that the military keeps DNA profiles on its soldiers), then daddy ought to be discharged as well.

@ S.C. Archleger: What? What are you babbling about? What confirms that “military men” do not want “military women” in the military? Firing squad? I guess this comes from you vast knowledge of the Armed Services both past and present. Been_There_Done_That is correct. I have known women to become pregnant on purpose either before or during a deployment just to avoid said deployment. Sadly, at the point that the baby is born the woman has the CHOICE to either stay in or leave the military with an Honorable Dishcharge. Since getting pregnant while deployed is a punishable offense ( the act of getting pregnant in a war zone is not grounds for a discharge, btw), I fail to see where the point is arguable. Getting someone pregnant is also a punishable offense but is not grounds for discharge. Also, because many of you are not in the military and not privy to the day to day operations, we are required to attend sexual assault/prevention classes once every six months. Sexual assault is a serious issue and recieves serious attention year round in the Army.

Cucolo said that in the eight weeks his policy has been in force, four women soldiers were redeployed because they had become pregnant in violation of Cucolo’s order. The four women and two male soldiers received letters of reprimand that will not remain in their permanent military files.

A third male soldier, he said, was also punished for getting a female soldier pregnant. He was a noncommissioned officer who was committing adultery. He was also charged with fraternization and given a permanent letter of reprimand. In that case, the man was a sergeant and the female a junior soldier.

One of the pregnant women declined to identify the person who got her pregnant, Cucolo said.

In addition to the four women who got pregnant while on duty in Iraq, Cucolo said four other female soldiers were sent home because they found out they were pregnant, but had become pregnant before being sent to Iraq.

“Will some soldiers hear this, read this and say ‘Well that’s nothing?’ Sure, they might,” Cuculo said. “But I’ve got 22,000 incredible soldiers who are incredible Americans and I’m counting on them to do the right thing.” Of the soldiers in his command, 1,682 are women.